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Archived News:
Daybreak Studio announces the closure of Legends of Norrath, saying
the EverQuest-themed trading card game has not had an active development team
"for quite some time," call the decision to close the servers on Wednesday,
August 17, 2016 at Noon PDT "difficult" (thanks
Gamasutra). They
also announce
that on July 1st they will pull the plug on the original PlanetSide.
Here's word: April and May were really exciting months for us with the
release of the new Construction System, base revamp of Indar, and new population
caps to improve battle flow. It’s been exciting to watch all of you experiment
with base design and shift battles in new directions. A big thanks to all of you
who have jumped in to try it out and given us feedback.
While we hope you are as excited as we are about the recent changes, we do have
to make a more solemn announcement. On July 1st, at 4:00 PM PT, we will be
closing the PlanetSide 1 server. PlanetSide 1 has a very important history with
Daybreak Games and a special place in the hearts of those who work on its
successor. While we have run the game for free since 2014, due to evolving
business needs and technical requirements it has become necessary to conclude
this service.
We hope you will take this opportunity to enjoy the remaining time available
with each other and please help us give PlanetSide 1 the sendoff it
deserves.
A new video features
Blizzard Game Director Jeff Kaplan, discussing the success of Overwatch and
discussing plans for the first-person shooter. He explains they have new heroes
in the works, new maps coming later this year, and plans for quality-of-life and
other improvements. Their main focus right now is finishing up the game's
competitive mode, and Jeff says they still hope to deliver this by the end of
this month. He takes some time to explain what to expect from competitive play,
saying they are looking to accommodate players taking things a little more
seriously than in quickmatch. He explains they have changed things to be more
competitive based on feedback from the beta, and offers some details about
what's changed. He talks of making seasons three months (matching the seasons of
the year), reducing the frequency of sudden death overtimes, making
assault maps play out longer, balancing progression versus skill in their
ranking system, showing players their skill ratings and other important
information, and more. He concludes expressing Blizzard's commitment to listen
to player feedback to adjust the system going forward and describing plans to
reward players with cosmetic items including golden weapons as rewards for
seasonal success. Continue here to read the full story.
As mentioned earlier in
the week, a first closed alpha test weekend gets underway tomorrow for
Lawbreakers, the upcoming first-person shooter from Cliff Bleszinski's Boss Key
Productions. They remind everyone interested they are still accepting alpha
signups on the LawBreakers website,
and go into further detail about their plans to put the game through its paces
before release: This is the first of several scaling tests taking place
over the course of summer and leading up to an Early Access phase on Steam later
in 2016. The first closed alpha test will feature the action-packed Overcharge
mode, played on LawBreakers’ first map, Grandview. Turf War mode, a unique take
on capture-and-hold amplified by the game’s thrilling combative moments, and the
Promenade map, based on the iconic Third Street location in sunny Santa Monica,
Calif, both revealed for the first time this week at E3, will be added for
subsequent tests, as will other unannounced content.
LawBreakers promises a bloodbath of role-based vertical team conflict, creating
endless mastery and competition across an alternate American landscape. Players
will choose whether to kill to uphold the “Law,” or go out for blood as a
“Breaker,” as they take part in the combat raging across iconic locations
including the boiling oceans off the Santa Monica coastline, a gravity-ravaged
Grand Canyon and beyond.
Here's a video
capturing some Battlefield One gameplay shot during an EA event to show off the
upcoming World War I installment in the military shooter series. This first
appeared the other day, so apologies for being late on this, and thanks CW for
the reminder. The clip runs 44 minutes, and shows off some gameplay you might
not expect from the era, including a lot of running and gunning, loads of
vehicular combat, and widespread use of automatic submachine guns. Continue here to read the full story.
A new trailer from
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada shows off the Space Marines DLC coming next week to
the sci-fi RTS game. This will be free to early adopters, and word is there's
still time to get in on the deal: "As advertised for several months, the Space
Marines faction - as well as the Tau faction currently under development - is
free to all Early Adopters of the game. The Early Adopter offer applies to all
pre-purchase owners and people who buy the game during the first two months of
the game's release - until June 21. Players now only have 4 days left to
purchase their Early Adopters Edition of the game and receive for free the Space
Marines and the Tau factions. Players who will purchase Battlefleet Gothic:
Armada after June 21 will be able to purchase the Space Marines and the Tau as
DLCs." Continue here to read the full story.
Games
Republic's Summer Sale 2016 is now underway, offering up to 90% discounts on
some games, the promise of more deals to come, and the chance to get a free copy
of Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the tower offense game from Games Republic owner 11
bit studios. Here's word on the sale: The first batch of titles includes
special deals on:
This War of Mine (-75%), Darksiders Franchise Pack (-85%), Painkiller Complete
Pack (-90%), Red Faction Collection (-90%), Punch Club (-41%), DOOM (-25%),
Hearts of Iron IV (up to -25%), Dead Island Definitive Edition (-25%) and more.
The Summer Sale offer will change during the 10 days, with more discounts on
games from Rockstar Games, 2K Games, Codemasters, Nordic Games, Devolver
Digital, Daedalic Entertainment, Capcom and more, so be sure to check back at
https://gamesrepublic.com/promo/summer-sale-2016,363.html
If you're new to Games Republic, with the first purchase you'll also get
Anomaly: Warzone Earth for free! It's an extraordinary twist of the tower
defense genre that puts you in the role of the attacker. Also GR first-timers
get a 10% discount code on one purchase (the discount doesn't apply to games on
sale).
Games Republic's Summer Sale will run until Sunday, June 26, till 23:59 CET.
All special offers on GamesRepublic.com can be found in the hot deals section at
http://bit.ly/GR-hot-deals.
Videogamer has a follow up to the
announcement of Dead Rising 4, which only mentioned Xbox One and
Windows 10 as target platforms for the zombie sequel. They clarify the game's
exclusivity deals, saying it is a console exclusive to Xbox One for the first
year and a Windows 10 exclusive for only 90 days. So presumably after three
months Microsoft will allow this to run on versions of Windows that compete with
the only version they want you to use.
GameSpot quotes Christopher Barrett of Bungie about future plans for
Destiny, their console shooter, and along the way he indicates they haven't
ruled out the possibility of a PC edition. That would make for another game from
Bungie where the PC port came considerably after an original release on a
different platform, as PC gamers received ports of Marathon II, Halo,
and Halo 2 all well after their times had passed. The comment does not make this sound like a top priority, so we'll have to see if
anything comes of it. Here's the part that covers the topic: Also in our
interview today, we asked Barrett if Bungie would ever released Destiny on PC.
He said this has not been ruled out, but don't expect it anytime soon. "No
updates on that today, but we're always looking at what platforms make sense for
Destiny," he explained.
EA announces details about the next content update for Star Wars Galaxies,
saying this will launch on June 21st for Season Pass Holders. The patch will add
maps based on the planet Bespin along with Lando Calrissian and Dengar as
playable characters. If you are interested in seeing all this in action, they
are planning a livestream today at 1:00 pm EDT on
@EAStarWars
and
@StarWarsHQ. Here's a
launch trailer and here's word: Join Lando Calrissian and Dengar in
the Cloud City of Bespin. DICE today revealed a new trailer that highlights some
of the new content, features and updates that Star WarsTM BattlefrontTM Season
Pass owners can enjoy. Starting June 21, Season Pass owners will have access to
exclusive playable characters Lando and Dengar, new maps set on Bespin, weapons
like the X-8 Night Sniper and EE-4, a new Cloud Car vehicle and an all new game
mode called Sabotage.
ALL Star Wars Battlefront players will also receive a new Hutt Contract to
unlock the powerful Ion Neutralizer.
Continue here to read the full story.
UbiBlog
has more on Steep, covering their newly announced game and "How an Open World
Changes Action Sports." This includes
a trailer on the
topic, featuring new footage of some of the extreme winter sports Steep
simulates. Here's word: Steep was the surprise announcement at this
year’s Ubisoft E3 press conference. The open-world take on action sports brings
you to the tops of the very best slopes in the Alps and encourages you to ride
down or explore them anyway you want, whether it’s by snowboarding, skiing, wing
suit flying, paragliding, or just by walking. But how does all of this actually
work in Steep? We had the chance to go hands-on with the game at E3 2016 and
came away with a better grasp of just how much freedom you’ll have. Find out
more in the video below:
Continue here to read the full story.
One-person developer Passtech Games announces the release of Space Run Galaxy, a fast-paced tower defense strategy sequel to the original Space Run.
This is available for Windows
on Steam, and carries a 15% launch discount. Here's an outline of the game:
Developed by Passtech Games, Space Run Galaxy is now available on
Steam! Space Run Galaxy
is the sequel to 2014's Space Run, the game from one-man studio Passtech, which
attracted over hundreds of thousands of players thanks to its dynamic and
original gameplay. Our previous
Gameplay Trailer
showed you the ropes of space running, today we let you move on to practice with
our Launch Trailer.
Strap on your seatbelt, recharge your shields and warm up your reactors, it's
going to be a bumpy intergalactic ride!
Set 20 years after the original game, Captain Buck Mann has now set up his very
own intergalactic courier service. You're a member of Mann's team of space
runners, racing to deliver precious goods from planet to planet! Reinforce your
modular ships with armaments including laser turrets, missile launchers and
energy shields, while leaving enough room for your cargo. Fly fast - the quicker
you arrive at your destination, the better the rewards!
- User-created contracts - Take on contracts
from other players for better rewards and unlimited replayability
- Intergalactic player market - Trade
hard-earned goods with your fellow space runners to sell off extra supplies,
or snap up a tidy bargain
- New corporations offer riskier jobs - Carry
the extra fragile cargo of XenoPrime, or risk transporting The Force's
highly dangerous weapon prototypes (which may even endanger your own ship!)
- Fresh dangers await - Face off against
brand new boss-type enemies, such as deadly pirate ships and huge space
monsters...
- Deep customization - Customize the shape,
size, and color of any ships you acquire during your adventure. There's no
restriction for what ship you use in each mission, letting you get creative
with every run!
Continue here to read the full story.
Thanks from MrsBlue for the happy birthday wishes. We had dinner at a local
place we'd been interested in trying, and we had a very pleasant time, though we
were actually disappointed in the food. The atmosphere was nice, and we had a
fine time making fun of its shortcomings, so we got our money's worth either
way. We had some post-dinner excitement too, as MrsBlue's phone ended up in the
toilet at the end of the night. This wasn't even alcohol related (the restaurant
didn't have a liquor license), it just fell from her pocket at the wrong time.
Luckily it doesn't seem any the worse for wear, though she might not want to
think about where it's been when she uses it.
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